The C-Dub is coming off a fall in which it has some success to tout -- the hot new "The Vampire Diaries" -- as well as some disappointments -- namely, the disappointing start for "Melrose Place" and the quickly canceled "The Beautiful Life."

As they turn their focus to next season's crop, the CW's execs are enlisting top-tier creatives who have given the network (and its predecessors WB and UPN) successes in the past.

"One Tree Hill" exec producer Mark Schwahn is behind "Spy School for Girls," which revolves around female spy trainees at a CIA facility.

Schwahn is writing and exec producing the project from CBS TV Studios, where the scribe has an overall deal. "Spy School" is based on a book in the works by former spook Larry Kolb, who will also be an exec producer on the show.

Schwahn has also teamed with country music star Brad Paisley and scribes Neal Dodson and Matt Bomer (whose thesp credits include "White Collar" and "Chuck") to create "Nashville," a drama that revolves around a young female singer destined for stardom -- and a male songwriter whose career isn't as certain.

Project reps the first in the TV biz for Paisley, who would write songs for the show and appear as himself. Dodson and Bomer wrote the script on spec and will exec produce, along side Schwahn and Paisley, for CBS TV Studios.

Also on the CW docket is the space-themed "Plymouth Rock," from Rob Thomas -- the scribe behind UPN's and CW's "Veronica Mars," and the original exec producer behind the C-Dub's revived "90210."

Thomas will exec produce "Plymouth" with Danielle Stokdyk and Jennifer Gwartz, as well as Dan Etheridge. That's the foursome behind Starz's cult fave "Party Down," in addition to "Cupid" and "Veronica Mars."

Soap centers on young people on a ship traveling to a distant planet in order to colonize and save the human race.

From "Gossip Girl" and "Vampire Diaries" producer Alloy Entertainment comes "Confessions of a Backup Dancer," about a woman who scores a gig as a backup dancer for a major pop star.

Other projects include "The March Sisters," described as "Little Women" meets "Sex and the City," about working-class siblings who try to make it on Park Avenue. Jill Gordon is writing and exec producing, while Meryl Poster is also an exec producer.

And an untitled drama from Robert De Niro's Tribeca Entertainment and scribe Julie Martin is set in Manhattan's Early Case Assessment Bureau.

Martin is exec producing with De Niro and Jane Rosenthal for CBS TV Studios.

Winner for best title of the new crop: "Bitches in Britches," a family soap set in the equestrian world of Millbrook, N.Y. Lionsgate is producing with Ish Entertainment.

Bob Brush and Mel Harris are writers and exec producers, while Zac Posen (who will design the look and feel of the show), Michael Hirschorn and Stella Stolper are exec producers as well.

We take a look at our silliest network's current slate of series in development.

Ohhh CW. When will you learn? Hopefully never, actually! Because the not-quite-big-boy network just keeps rolling out laughably ridiculous show after laughably ridiculous show. Sometimes they are good ridiculous (Gossip Girl) and sometimes they are awful ridiculous (Melrose Place). But no matter what, they're always fun to gawp at in horror. And look! The network has just revealed its new drama development slate, and there are some fantastically stupid-sounding new shows on it.

Bitches in Britches

I was considering holding this one until the end of the list, but it's just too good. Basically fashion designer and The Beautiful Life: TBL-cameo-maker Zac Posen decided he wanted to try some equestrian looks, so he cobbled together this show with some real-life TV guys so he could do just that. It concerns the horsey world of Millbrook, NY--where New York City's exurban elite go to straddle heaving wild animals for pleasure. And that title! Oh, it probably won't stick, I mean it can't stick, but I'm glad it exists just for a few brief moments. Casting Suggestion: Sarah Jessica Parker, obviously. Ha ha. Seriously, though, perhaps The OC's brown-maned filly Willa Holland. She's patrician and cruel-looking, just like horse people.

The March Sisters

Sound familiar? Well, it ought to. The March sisters were those dizzy dames who talked about womanity and hand-holding back when such things were illegal in that 1994 movie Little Women. Which was based on some sort of book or something, I think. Of course this won't be a series about smart, bookish, headstrong young ladies struggling through tough winters and boyful summers in Civil War-era Concord. Oh mercy no. This is the CW! So these March sisters will be modern-day poor girls trying to make it big on Park Avenue. Sheesh. As long as the Beth character gets scarlet fever and then later dies of TB, I'm fine. Oh, and they have to call their mom "Marmie." That is a must. Casting Suggestion: Who better to play Laurie (leading lady Jo's sexy will-they-or-won't-they boy interest) than Greek's shaggy, sensitive, soulful Andrew J. West.

Plymouth Rock

A sudsy nighttime soap about hot, horny, young pilgrims fighting to survive in stony, cold Massachusetts Bay Colony. Sounds terif, right? Well too bad. Our collective dream of a network television pilgrim sex romp will have to wait, because the damn thing is actually set in space. Spaaaaace! Which is somehow even more ridiculous than a show about pilgrims doing it. But yeah, they're a bunch of hot, horny, young astronauts searching to find a place for Earth's inhabitants to resettle. So, the title's clever, get it? I'd say that I was excited about this because Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas is behind it but a) I'd be lying if I said I ever watched Veronica Mars (I know, I know it's great... I'm Netflixing it*) and b) Rob Thomas did NOT do well with the whole 90210 reboot thing last year. So. we'll see. We'll just have to wait and see. Casting Suggestion: Every youth sex spaceship needs a slightly older but still just as hot captain. So hows about beaming up the slammin' hot Stephanie Jacobsen from Sarah Connor Chronicles? Yes, I know she's on Melrose Place right now, but, guys... that thing ain't gonna last.

Nashville

Because shows about music are hot right now, and country music is an often-ignored-by-TV facet of the music industry, the CW figures it'll kill two birds with one big ol' honkin' doggone stone by raising the barn on Nashville, a story of a young dreamer who moves to Tennessee to realize her dreams. (First mistake: Moving to Tennessee to realize her dreams.) Brad Paisley, the girl from Father of the Bride's husband who also happens to sing a few country songs, is going to write music for the show as well as occasionally appear as himself. Maybe this means Kimberly Williams can actually get some work. That'd be nice for her. So yeah, expect wide-eyed dreamer cliches and lots of pensive sing-moaning and probably some sassy country girl who works at a bar and teaches the young newbie how to roll in this turrible town. Casting Suggestion: Well, other than Ms. Williams? I think the CW'd just about cream in their Wranglers if Taylor Swift suddenly expressed interest. That's probably why they started development on the damn thing in the first place. But nah. Let's think more outside the rodeo chute and go with... oh! Lucas Till in a wig.

he CW has handed a presentation order to "Nomads," an action adventure drama from "Numbers" executive producer Ken Sanzel.

The project, from CBS Studios, Warner Bros TV and Scott Free Prods., is described as an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride following a group of nearly broke young backpackers traveling the world who agree to earn money by working secret missions for the CIA.

Sanzel wrote the script and will direct the pilot.

He is also executive producing with Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and David Zucker.

This is the third pilot presentation for the CW this season, following orders for the cheerleading drama "Hellcats" and the untitled Amy Holden Jones medical drama.